Manufacturing Consent

NOAM CHOMSKY – Concept 1: Five Filters

Noam Chomsky says that the media is a mechanism that is deliberately used by the rich and powerful (the elite) as a way of Manufacturing Consent.

Video from Thought Monkey:

The advertising industry is dedicated to creating consumers, this ideal is developed in the most free countries such as America and Great Britain. It became clear it was not going to be easy to control a population through force as too much freedom had been won (feminist movements, Black Lives Matter, parliament etc). So it was understood that you have to control them by beliefs and attitude. The best way to control people through attitudes is through the term ‘Fabricating Consumering.’ This means to make obtaining things that are just about within reach in life, trapping you into becoming a consumer.

“The public must be put in their place. So the responsible men can make the decisions.”

– Walter Lippmann [American Political Commentator]

Fabricating Consumerism became very popular and sophisticated within advertising. An example is teenage girls would rather go shopping in the mall rather then studying r reading at the library, because that is what is shown on media and it has now become a the stigma around women and shopping for materialistic objects. (consuming) The idea is to control society by making it into this perfect system. The perfect system would be society based on a dyad (meaning the relationships between individuals or objects) between the individual and their electronics/internet presenting you with what the ‘proper life’ would be where you spend your time and effort trying to gain those things that you don’t need. This becomes the measure of a decent life.

Marketing is supposed to be based in informing consumers on making rational choices. However, through media products this is rarely done. For example, a car advert may feature and actress or a football player (someone with status) driving the car and doing some ‘cool tricks’ with the car with the purpose to convince irrational consumers. The ad contains little to no information about the car and how it works but the focus is on the ‘appearance and desire’. More so, what this car could do for you if you have it. Not what you could do with this car.

The same approach can be seen in elections. They create uninformed electorates who make irrational choices which often go against their own interests. Right after the election, President Obama won an award from the advertising industry for the best marketing campaign 2008. He never really discussed policy changes due to the public having a say on policy changes are sharply disconnected. Therefore this links to Noam Chomsky who talks about media and the rich going hand in hand.

The process of this manipulation is demonstrated through five filters:

1. STRUCTURES OF OWNERSHIP: Mass media firms are big corporations, and often part of even bigger conglomerates with an end game of profit. So it is in their interest to push for whatever guarantees that profit. Critical journalism takes second place to the needs and interest of the corporation.
2. THE ROLE OF ADVERTISING: Media costs a lit more then consumerists will ever pay. So who fills this gap? Advertisers. Why? They are paying for the audiences. This makes audiences become the product.
3. LINKS WITH THE ‘ESTABLISHMENT’: Governments, Corporations and institutions know how to play the media game – influence the news narrative. The feed the media (official accounts, scoops, interviews) to make themselves crucial to the process of journalism. Challenging power often leads to being pushed to the margins – lost access.
4. DIVERSIONARY TACTICS – FLACK: When media, journalists, whistle-blowers, sources stray away from the consensus. When the story is inconvenient for the powerful, they discredit sources, trash stories and divert the focus.
5. UNITING AGAINST A COMMON ENEMY: To manufacture consent you need an enemy – someone to fear to help certify public opinion. [Immigrants, communism, terrorists]

The media are ‘agenda setting’

• Agenda Setting-  driven by the media’s bias on things such as politics, economy and culture, etc.
• Framing –  theory of mass communication, refers to how the media packages and presents information to the public. Encourage of discourage certain interpretations.
• Myth making – Accepting information at face value rather than questioning the research and sources. – Fake news
• Conditions of Consumption – Wide range of emotional and behavioural effects consumed through media.